A classic misinformation campaign … maybe

The recent updates of what may have been the Israeli target in its early September attack in Syria have popped up again in the news media. This time it is well intended US types using US commercial satellite photos that have better resolution than the French SPOT satellite photos from Google Earth. Their overhead and corollary evidence is superficially or better convincing that this target was a North Korean nuclear plant in the making, albeit probably years away from going online.

The day of the attack there were hints that actually two attacks and targets were involved. The Israeli’s may have gotten a two-for-one if they can keep their secrets “Secret”. Of course, the Syrians have to go along with all this, and the problems of nepotism by the present eye doctor president and his deceased father’s alawite cohorts appear to help all this along. More to follow, but first…

The principle of a misinformation campaign is as old as history. Spin a tale that might be true, and many people will act on it. Back in 1991 or so, there were many open source reports of the sale of nuclear weapons to Iran from former Soviet republics. The flavors varied some (to include the weapons (artillery, bombs, and missile) and the routes of the transfer) but the multiple sources made it look plausible. Here’s two links about this: http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Iraq/Dec1202.htm http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/1999/980409-iran-jp.htm
There are other open source links. I believe them all. We in the West even got a hint from Putin not too long ago when he made a point of saying he controlled his nukes, but could not vouch for them before his watch.

But there is another point of view. The collective opinion at the 1991 time was that this story was an Israeli plant as part of a misinformation campaign. Right or wrong, that is what we Americans decided then. And much the same may be going on now. And aggressive “insider” media types may be used. But that is too crude. The sources of these “insider” media types are also being used in the normal way.

Some combination may be going on. Just look at the Vela Event in 1979, and see how President Carter forced his own judgment on the conclusions.

Most interesting are the Brit comments about how close the world came to WW III on September 5/6. Perhaps there was to be a Syrian attack on the Golan, initiated by chemical topped missiles from Syria’s SCUD and CW site at Al-Safir, and launch site at Minakh. Perhaps that was the “real” target.

One little bit of military talk. GPS is pretty nifty, when it works. GPS guided bombs have an accuracy of 10 M, about 30 feet. When these GPS widgets go into canyons (arroyos in some talk, hollows in some other talk) these widgets lose accuracy. Add in the GPS spoofers, also. Of course we Americans are smart, so some of these bombs are a combination of GPS and laser guided, and the lasers give us an accuracy of 3 M, about 10 feet. Of course one must have commandos on the ground to designate.

As a child of the 60’s I have always assumed the start of WW I by the assassination of the some royal figure in Sarajevo, Serbia could never happen again as a reason for a world war. Now I am not so certain. People are funny, don't you know.